Re: be careful
A
troll's purpose is to turn the conversation away from the thread's topic and into a discussion of the
troll.
Trolls go away if they aren't being talked about. The way to deal with
trolls is to ignore them; don't let them derail the conversation. When they get hungry they go on to other message boards where they can get their preferred food.
You can still find
trolls lurking after they apparently left, though, when they aren't locked out. A newbie arrives, and all of a sudden it's
Troll City again.
<hr>
Now, let's see: Hey, InfoCenter! I know you still monitor this board, so could you give Charley a hand? <a href="http://www.publishamerica.com/cgi-bin/pamessageboard/data/lounge/4913.htm" target="_new">www.publishamerica.com/cgi-bin/pamessageboard/data/lounge/4913.htm</a>.
Seems your on-line bookstore is down, so when Charley's nephew tried to order a copy, he couldn't.
Pierrette had the same problem, and you didn't even answer her email. Guys, get with it! At least
pretend you're trying to sell books, okay?
"...in P.A fashion I am sure they're working on it," Pierrette says, and you know something? I'm sure that in PA fashion, they are.
Now, a blast from the past. Remember the silly (not to mention misleading) reply that InfoCenter gave to folks who were wondering why their books weren't in bookstores? I think I figured something out. Look here:
Remember this bit:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
A Vice President at Barnes and Noble wrote us a letter recently, saying, "We very much believe in print-on-demand (POD) technology as a cost-effective tool available for publishers to extend the range of their title offerings to Barnes & Noble... We believe that POD represents an opportunity to increase the range of titles we offer... We will continue to stock every title that you publish, which enables us to rapidly replenish our stores..."</blockquote>
That doesn't make a lot of sense. Why should B&N think that POD publishing will enable them to rapidly replenish their stores? POD printing is slower than offset. POD printers don't use faster shipping methods than anyone else. And if B&N were having trouble restocking their stores in good time, they'd be talking to Ingram or Baker & Taylor or their favorite shipping firms, not to PublishAmerica. Moreover, if they were making an agreement that involved shipping and restocking, the whole thing would be a lot more serious and technical than this cheerily superficial little note.
But notice the ellipses.
I suspect those sentences or sentence fragments come from different paragraphs. Let's home in on this one here:
We will continue to stock every title that you publish, which enables us to rapidly replenish our stores...
Now it's obvious that B&N doesn't stock every title PublishAmerica publishes. Check your random B&N and you'll find you're hard-pressed to find
any PA title in stock. The PA message boards are chock-a-block (until the threads are deleted and the author banned) with stories of authors unable to get their books stocked on the shelves of physical B&N stores despite going to the managers and begging.
So, what does this mean? Let's combine it with a sentence from a bit higher up in that silly, superficial, and misleading InfoCenter reply:
"Also worthy of note, most of your books are physically, actually, in stock at Ingram, with copies in their Oregon and Tennessee warehouses, and at a Barnes and Noble distribution center, ready to ship immediately."
"Most of your books are physically ... at a Barnes and Noble distribution center, ready to ship immediately."
Okay, got it. The Vice President of B&N is saying, sure, we'll take one copy of each book to put in one or another massive echoing distribution center, just in case someone, somewhere orders one. They keep books in those warehouses "...which enables us to rapidly replenish our stores...."
That won't put PublishAmerica books on B&N shelves out where the public can see (and perhaps buy) them, but it sure allows InfoCenter to post misleading information without technically lying.